Eddie Wells

Eddie Wells (died 1987) was the Labour Party MP for Newcastle upon Tyne from 1974 to 1987. He was elected as an independent Labour MP, having defeated the wealthy businessman who Labour had selected as their candidate. Wells went on to survive several smear campaigns and launch several anti-corruption investigations, but he was caught in a scandal in 1987 when it was discovered that his researcher had been a Conservative Party employee and had helped him prepare a defamatory and false expose against Colin Butler. Before he could resign his seat, he died of a heart attack.

Biography
Eddie Wells was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England to a working-class family, and he befriended trade unionist Felix Hutchinson and his family. By 1964, he had been elected a local councillor, and, in 1974, he decided to run for Parliament. The Labour Party chose a wealthy businessman as their candidate instead of choosing Wells, who ran as an independent Labour candidate. Wells survived a smear campaign and was elected by a narrow margin, and he later joined the national party; he survived the 1979 election despite a smear campaign against him by Conservative Party agent Colin Butler. In 1984, he investigated the involvement of local businesses in breaking a major strike. Wells became an embittered alcoholic during Margaret Thatcher's premiership, and, in 1987, he was forced to resign after discovering that his researcher Francine had, in league with Butler, leaked him false information about Butler's public relations firm's corruption in order to make Wells prepare a false expose, which Wells embarrassingly had to retract at the last minute. Wells died of a large heart attack as he tried to gather his blown-away papers during the Great Storm of 1987.